Devanagari
आहुश्च ते नलिननाभ पदारविन्दं
योगेश्वरैर्हृदि विचिन्त्यमगाधबोधै: ।
संसारकूपपतितोत्तरणावलम्बं
गेहं जुषामपि मनस्युदियात् सदा न: ॥ ४८ ॥
Verse text
āhuś ca te nalina-nābha padāravindaṁ
yogeśvarair hṛdi vicintyam agādha-bodhaiḥ saṁsāra-kūpa-patitottaraṇāvalambaṁ
gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ
Synonyms
āhuḥ
—
the gopīs said
;
ca
—
and
;
te
—
Your
;
nalina
—
nabha — O Lord, whose navel is just like a lotus flower
;
pada
—
aravindam — lotus feet
;
yoga
—
īśvaraiḥ — by the great mystic yogīs
;
hṛdi
—
within the heart
;
vicintyam
—
to be meditated upon
;
agādha
—
bodhaiḥ — who were highly learned philosophers
;
saṁsāra
—
kūpa — the dark well of material existence
;
patita
—
of those fallen
;
uttaraṇa
—
of deliverers
;
avalambam
—
the only shelter
;
geham
—
family affairs
;
juṣām
—
of those engaged
;
api
—
though
;
manasi
—
in the minds
;
udiyāt
—
let be awakened
;
sadā
—
always
;
naḥ
—
our .
Translation
The gopīs spoke thus: Dear Lord, whose navel is just like a lotus flower, Your lotus feet are the only shelter for those who have fallen into the deep well of material existence. Your feet are worshiped and meditated upon by great mystic yogīs and highly learned philosophers. We wish that these lotus feet may also be awakened within our hearts, although we are only ordinary persons engaged in household affairs.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The gopīs spoke thus: Dear Lord, whose navel is just like a lotus flower, Your lotus feet are the only shelter for those who have fallen into the deep well of material existence. Your feet are worshiped and meditated upon by great mystic yogīs and highly learned philosophers. We wish that these lotus feet may also be awakened within our hearts, although we are only ordinary persons engaged in household affairs.
KB 10.82.48
The gopīs therefore prayed to Kṛṣṇa, “Dear Kṛṣṇa, from Your navel emanated the original lotus flower, which is the birthsite of Brahmā, the creator. No one can estimate Your glories or Your opulence, which therefore remain always a mystery even to the highest thoughtful men, the masters of all yogic power. However, the conditioned soul fallen in the dark well of this material existence can very easily take shelter of Your lotus feet. Thus his deliverance is guaranteed.”
The gopīs continued: “Dear Kṛṣṇa, we are always busy in our family affairs. We therefore request that You remain within our hearts as the rising sun. That will be Your greatest benediction.” The gopīs are always liberated souls because they are fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They only pretended to be entangled in household affairs in Vṛndāvana. Because of their separation from Kṛṣṇa, He might have asked them to return with Him to His capital city, Dvārakā. But the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, the gopīs, were not interested in the idea of going with Kṛṣṇa to Dvārakā. They wanted to remain busy in Vṛndāvana and thus feel the presence of Kṛṣṇa in every step of their lives. They immediately invited Kṛṣṇa to come back to Vṛndāvana. This transcendental emotional existence of the gopīs is the basic principle of Lord Caitanya’s teaching. The Ratha-yātrā festival observed by Lord Caitanya is the emotional process of taking Kṛṣṇa back to Vṛndāvana. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī refused to go with Kṛṣṇa to Dvārakā to enjoy His company in the atmosphere of royal opulence, for She wanted to enjoy His company in the original Vṛndāvana atmosphere. Lord Kṛṣṇa, being profoundly attached to the gopīs, never goes away from Vṛndāvana, and the gopīs and other residents of Vṛndāvana remain fully satisfied in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Eighty-second Chapter of Kṛṣṇa, “Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma Meet the Inhabitants of Vṛndāvana.”
Purport
The translation and word meanings for this verse are taken from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s English rendering of
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta
(
Madhya
1.81), where this verse is quoted.
Revealing the jealous mood in which the
gopīs
spoke these deceptively reverential words, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī gives their statements as follows: “O Supreme Lord, O directly manifest Supersoul, O crest jewel of instructors in definitive knowledge, You were aware of our excessive attachment to home, property and family. Therefore You previously had Uddhava instruct us in the knowledge that dispels ignorance, and now You have done so Yourself. In this way You have purified our hearts of contamination, and as a result we understand Your pure love for us, free from any motivation other than assuring our liberation. But we are only unintelligent cowherd women; how can this knowledge remain fixed in our hearts? We cannot even meditate steadily on Your feet, the focus of realization for great souls like Lord Brahmā. Please be merciful to us and somehow make it possible for us to concentrate on You, even a little. We are still suffering the reactions of our own fruitive work, so how can we meditate on You, the goal of great
yogīs
? Such
yogīs
are immeasurably wise, but we are mere feeble-minded women. Please do something to get us out of this deep well of material life.”
Pure devotees are never motivated by a desire for material elevation or spiritual liberation. And even if the Lord offers them such benedictions, the devotees often refuse to accept them. As stated by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Eleventh Canto of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
(11.20.34)
:
na kiṣcit sādhavo dhīrā
bhaktā hy ekāntino mama
vāṣchanty api mayā dattaṁ
kaivalyam apunar-bhavam
“Because My devotees possess saintly behavior and deep intelligence, they completely dedicate themselves to Me and do not desire anything besides Me. Indeed, even if I offer them liberation from birth and death, they do not accept it.” It is quite appropriate, therefore, that the
gopīs
respond with a trace of jealous anger to Lord Kṛṣṇa’s attempt at teaching them
jṣāna-yoga.
Thus, according to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the words the
gopīs
speak in this verse may be interpreted as follows: “O sun who directly destroys the darkness of ignorance, we are scorched by the sun-rays of this philosophical knowledge. We are
cakora
birds who can subsist only on the moonlight radiating from Your beautiful face. Please come back to Vṛndāvana with us, and in this way bring us back to life.”
And if He says, “Then come to Dvārakā; there we will enjoy together,” they reply that Śrī Vṛndāvana is their home, and they are too attached to it for them to take up residence anywhere else. Only there, the
gopīs
imply, can Kṛṣṇa attract them by wearing peacock feathers in His turban and playing enchanting music with His flute. Only by His appearing again in Vṛndāvana can the
gopīs
be saved, not by any other kind of meditation on Him or theoretical knowledge of the self.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Tenth Canto, Eighty-second Chapter, of the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
entitled “Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma Meet the Inhabitants of Vṛndāvana.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Approaching him, the gopis spoke (ahus ca) with sarcasm, out of anger. "O teacher of philosophical knowledge, o Supreme Lord, paramatma himself, understanding that we have great attachment to house, wealth and family, previously through Uddhava and now personally, you are purifying our hearts with instructions on knowledge which destroys that ignorance. We understand that this is your pure affection, to liberate us. But how can we unintelligent cowherd women fix that knowledge in our hearts. It does not even lead to thinking of your lotus feet, sought after by Brahma and others. Therefore please do something to make that possible."
"Your feet are the object of meditation for masters of yoga (yogesvaraih) so how is it possible for us, afflicted by karmic results, to think of those feet? Those with profound intelligence concentrate on your feet, but how can we, with little intelligence, think of those feet? Those feet are the means of deliverance for those fallen in the well of the material world. Please make some effort to remove our suffering in this world. How is it possible for your lotus feet to arise in the minds of us, who are so attached to family life." This statement reveals hidden anger.
There are many verses illustrating that devotees do not aspire for liberation from the pains of the material world, such as the following.
"Those how have surrendered to the dust of your lotus feet do not desire the post of Brahma, the kingdom of Indra, rulership of this world, or of rasatala. They do not desire mystic powers, or rebirth in this world."
"My pure devotees never desire liberation, escape from rebirth in this world, even it is offered by the Lord."
"My devotees regard heaven, liberation and hell as the same."
The devotees never accepts liberation the result of jnana even if offered by the Lord. How then is it suitable for the gopis, the best of devotees to mention this knowledge which gives liberation, and recommend it for themselves? Hearing the unbearable teachings of adhyatma from the mouth of their most beloved, they should then express anger at that in this verse. Thus, such an explanation is appropriate. Such explanations of meaning coming through oral tradition are possible in this scripture, which is full of double meaning. That is clear.
Or the meaning can be as follows. "Oh, sun who destroys ignorance, by the heat of your philosophical knowledge we are burning up, and as cakora birds, we live by the moonlight emanating from your moon like face. Therefore come back to Vrndavana and bring us to life by your pastimes such as rasa lila." Then they begin to speak.
"The masters of yoga think of you in their hearts, but we hold those feet on our breast, over our hearts, and by holding them we are able to maintain our lives, and not otherwise. Those with deep intelligence meditate on your feet, but we have shallow intelligence. Just beginning to meditate, we drown in the ocean of swooning, so what is the question of meditating? If one can meditate on your feet, those feet deliver the person fallen in the well of material life. But that is not able to deliver us who have fallen in the ocean of separation from you. We being cowherd girls have not fallen in the well of material life, having renounced the happiness of material life, house and husband from early age. But we have fallen in the ocean of separation."
Krsna says, "Come to Dvaraka and I will perform pastimes with you there."
Therefore, they say, "For those whose minds (manasi) are attached (jusam) to Vrndavana, where we have our houses (geham), and cannot give up that place, because we have a taste for that sweetness of the beauty of your peacock feather, flute and other features, your lotus feet should appear there, in Vraja. By seeing you in Vraja, our pain will be relived. It will not be relieved by remembering you, what to speak of repeated teachings of atma jnana."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Understanding that they would attain him by his words, by taking the meaning of his teachings on ātmā-jñāna as an example or as esoteric communication (parokṣāvāda) they became most satisfied. Yet still they prayed to him with intense ardor. They indicate his supreme beauty by describing his lotus navel. O Lord with a lotus navel! Comparing his feet to lotuses suggests that his feet produce the sweetest rasa and destroy suffering. Those feet are the best object of meditation (vi—cintyam) in the heart for those who have mastered bhakti-yoga (yogeśvaraiḥ). They are considered the highest human goal by jñānīs, even by liberated ones. They are the means of deliverance for those who have fallen in saṁsāra-- the materialists. Thus those feet are the served by bhaktas, muktas and materialists as the means and as the goal. May those feet manifest even once in the house of us gopīs who serve those feet constantly in our minds.
Or, by first calling out to him “O Lord with a lotus navel” they indicate to this special person the intolerable and unacceptable situation of separation up to this time. Being most unfortunate, let us forget about even a trace of news concerning seeing you. O Lord with the lotus navel! May your lotus feet appear in our minds by remembrance of your instructions. But this seems impossible. Those feet should be the object of meditation for the masters of yoga, nor for us, since we faint on beginning to remember those feet. They expand on this. Those feet are the object of meditation for those whose intelligence is without agitation, even if they directly see those feet (agādha-bodhaiḥ), but not by us, since we become agitated and constantly faint just by desiring to see those feet. The Lord himself spoke to Uddhava:
mayi tāḥ preyasāṁ preṣṭhe dūra-sthe gokula-striyaḥ
smarantyo ’ṅga vimuhyanti virahautkaṇṭhya-vihvalāḥ
My dear Uddhava, for those women of Gokula I am the most cherished object of love. Thus when they remember me, who am so far away, they are overwhelmed by the anxiety of separation. SB 10.46.5
By comparing his feet to lotuses they suggest that by touching his feet they can be relieved of suffering. But simply remembering those feet will not give relief. “But just as meditation by yogīs destroys the suffering of saṁsāra, it will destroy your suffering of separation. Therefore you should put those feet in your minds.” Though those feet deliver persons who have fallen in saṁsāra, they will not deliver us, who have drowned in the ocean of separation. By thinking of your feet we will experience an increase of suffering. “Having come here, you can constantly experience me directly.” We live in others’ houses and are not independent (gṛham jusām).
Or, that meeting should be in the place where you previously had pastimes with us, in Gokula, in our own homes, which we perceive as our natural homes, where our desires can fulfilled, not in Dvārakā. They had great affection for him alone, with their special desires. Their sentiment is expressed in the following verse.
yaḥ kaumāra-haraḥ sa eva hi varas tā eva caitra-kṣapās
te conmīlita-mālatī-surabhayaḥ prauḍhāḥ kadambānilāḥ
sā caivāsmi tathāpi tatra surata-vyāpāra-līlā-vidhau
revā-rodhasi vetasī-taru-tale cetaḥ samutkaṇṭhate
That very personality who stole away my heart during my youth is now again my master. These are the same moonlit nights of the month of Caitra. The same fragrance of mālatī flowers is there, and the same sweet breezes are blowing from the kadamba forest. In our intimate relationship, I am also the same lover, yet still my mind is not happy here. I am eager to go back to that place on the bank of the Revā under the Vetasī tree. That is my desire. Padyāvalī
Therefore they express distaste because they could not to think of his feet in their minds and because he was not able to personally come to Vraja.
dhārayanty ati-kṛcchreṇa prāyaḥ prāṇān kathañcana
pratyāgamana-sandeśair ballavyo me mad-ātmikāḥ
Simply because I have promised to return to them, my fully devoted cowherd girlfriends struggle to maintain their lives somehow or other. SB 46.6
Since we have become lifeless because of you, only if you come to Vṛndāvana will we be free of suffering.
The cowherd boys like Śrīdāṁā did not come since they did not feel separation after being instructed by Uddhava. They stayed in Gokula to protect the cows. Therefore Kṛṣṇa meeting them at Kurukṣetra is not described.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Though understanding by his words that he was to be attained there, they prayed to him with intense ardor. They indicated his supreme beauty by describing his lotus navel. O Lord with a lotus navel! Comparing his feet to lotuses suggests that his feet produce the sweetest rasa and destroy suffering. Those feet are the best object of meditation (vi—cintyam) in the hearts for those who have mastered bhakti-yoga (yogeśvaraiḥ). They are considered the highest human goal by jñānīs, even by liberated ones. They are the means of deliverance for those who have fallen in saṁsāra-- the materialists. Thus those feet are the served by bhaktas, muktas and materialists as the means and as the goal. May those feet manifest even once in the house of us gopīs who serve those feet constantly in our minds.
He did not separately pacify Śrīdāmā and others cowherds since the pacification would be similar to the gopīs in friendship and words. Or he did so, but because it was similar, Śukadeva does not describe it.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Tenth Canto, Eighty-second Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma Meet the Inhabitants of Vṛndāvana."
10.83: Draupadī Meets the Queens of Kṛṣṇa
verses: Summary, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25-26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41-42, 43
Chapter Summary
This chapter relates a conversation between Draupadī and Lord Kṛṣṇa's foremost queens, in which each of them describes how the Lord married her.
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa returned from His meeting with the gopīs and asked King Yudhiṣṭhira and His other relatives whether they were well. They replied, "My Lord, anyone who has just once imbibed through his ears the honey of Your pastimes can never know misfortune."
Then Draupadī inquired from Lord Kṛṣṇa's wives how the Lord had come to marry them. Queen Rukmiṇī spoke first: "Many kings, headed by Jarāsandha, were intent on giving me in marriage to Śiśupāla. Thus at my wedding they all stood with bows in hand, ready to support Śiśupāla against any opponents. But Śrī Kṛṣṇa came and forcibly took me away, as a lion takes his prey from amidst goats and sheep."
Queen Satyabhāmā said, "When my uncle Prasena was killed, my father, Satrājit, falsely accused Lord Kṛṣṇa of murder. To clear His name, Kṛṣṇa defeated Jāmbavān, recovered the Syamantaka jewel and returned it to Satrājit. Repentant, my father presented the Lord with both the jewel and myself."
Queen Jāmbavatī said, "When Śrī Kṛṣṇa entered my father's cave in search of the Syamantaka jewel, at first my father, Jāmbavān, did not understand who He was. So my father fought with Him for twenty-seven days and nights. Finally, Jāmbavān understood that Kṛṣṇa was none other than Lord Rāmacandra, his worshipable Lord. Thus he gave Kṛṣṇa the Syamantaka jewel, along with me."
Queen Kālindī said, "To obtain Kṛṣṇa as my husband, I performed severe austerities. Then one day Lord Kṛṣṇa came to me in the company of Arjuna, and at that time the Lord agreed to marry me."
Queen Mitravindā said, "Śrī Kṛṣṇa came to my svayaṁ-vara ceremony, where He defeated all the opposing kings and took me away to His city of Dvārakā."
Queen Satyā said, "My father stipulated that to win my hand, a prospective suitor would have to subdue and tie up seven powerful bulls. Accepting this challenge, Lord Kṛṣṇa playfully subdued them, defeated all His rival suitors and married me."
Queen Bhadrā said, "My father invited his nephew Kṛṣṇa, to whom I had already given my heart, and offered me to Him as His bride. The dowry was an entire military division and a retinue of my female companions."
Queen Lakṣmaṇā said to Draupadī, "At my svayaṁ-vara, as at yours, a fish-target was fastened near the ceiling. But in my case the fish was concealed on all sides, and only its reflection could be seen in a pot of water below. Several kings tried to hit the fish with an arrow but failed. Arjuna then made his attempt. He concentrated on the reflection of the fish in the water and took careful aim, but when he released his arrow it only grazed the target. Then Śrī Kṛṣṇa fixed His arrow on the bow and shot it straight through the target, knocking it to the ground. I placed the victory necklace on Śrī Kṛṣṇa's neck, but the kings who had failed raised a violent protest. Lord Kṛṣṇa valiantly fought them, cutting off the heads, arms and legs of many and sending the rest fleeing for their lives. Then the Lord took me to Dvārakā for our lavish wedding."
Rohiṇī-devī, representing all the other queens, explained that they were daughters of the kings defeated by Bhaumāsura. The demon had held them captive, but when Lord Kṛṣṇa killed him He had released them and married them all.